Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ)

[edcraw]

Oh look - ULEZ reduces pollution, who’d off thought!

Ulez expansion led to significant drop in air pollutants in London, report finds

Change equivalent to removing 200,000 cars for a year, with capital’s air quality improving at faster rate than rest of England

www.theguardian.com

 

[dessiato]

I no longer have my compliant Astra, it succumbed to old age, so I’m now looking at getting a hybrid.

My Golf gives me an overall average of about 55mpg at the moment, but is not compliant. The car I’m hoping to buy is a MHEV which gives, according to manufacturers figures, an average of 42 mpg. So I will need to spend a lot of money to buy a less fuel efficient car that will be ULEZ compliant for the times I need to go into these areas. If I was sure I’d never need to, then I’d certainly not be wasting my money, but current circumstances mean that I’ll be needing to visit ULEZ areas.

Pure electric will not work for me because of the long distances I’ll be travelling. I’m going back to Spain for two months soon, and the charging network is not very good yet so EV is out. PHEV might be the all round best option.

 

[dessiato]

Oh look - ULEZ reduces pollution, who’d off thought!

Ulez expansion led to significant drop in air pollutants in London, report finds

Change equivalent to removing 200,000 cars for a year, with capital’s air quality improving at faster rate than rest of England

www.theguardian.com

I wonder how much the report writers got for that. More than it was worth no doubt.

 

[Elpenor]

I no longer have my compliant Astra, it succumbed to old age, so I’m now looking at getting a hybrid.

My Golf gives me an overall average of about 55mpg at the moment, but is not compliant. The car I’m hoping to buy is a MHEV which gives, according to manufacturers figures, an average of 42 mpg. So I will need to spend a lot of money to buy a less fuel efficient car that will be ULEZ compliant for the times I need to go into these areas. If I was sure I’d never need to, then I’d certainly not be wasting my money, but current circumstances mean that I’ll be needing to visit ULEZ areas.

Pure electric will not work for me because of the long distances I’ll be travelling. I’m going back to Spain for two months soon, and the charging network is not very good yet so EV is out. PHEV might be the all round best option.

What’s the cost of the occasional visit to a Ulez zone vs buying a new less efficient car that you admit is not suitable for your needs?

 

[liquidindian]

I wonder how much the report writers got for that. More than it was worth no doubt.

If I find out that people were PAID to do a JOB I'm going to be so angry.

 

[edcraw]

I wonder how much the report writers got for that. More than it was worth no doubt.

Not sure what you mean by that tbh. We need reports to show people these measures are effective as so many try and oppose - hopefully reports like this will help strengthen the arguments for cities like Manchester & New York that have chickened out of similar measures.

Meanwhile here’s what ULEZ opponents are up to these days…

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I no longer have my compliant Astra, it succumbed to old age, so I’m now looking at getting a hybrid.

My Golf gives me an overall average of about 55mpg at the moment, but is not compliant. The car I’m hoping to buy is a MHEV which gives, according to manufacturers figures, an average of 42 mpg. So I will need to spend a lot of money to buy a less fuel efficient car that will be ULEZ compliant for the times I need to go into these areas. If I was sure I’d never need to, then I’d certainly not be wasting my money, but current circumstances mean that I’ll be needing to visit ULEZ areas.

Pure electric will not work for me because of the long distances I’ll be travelling. I’m going back to Spain for two months soon, and the charging network is not very good yet so EV is out. PHEV might be the all round best option.

You're seriously considering buying a car that is so polluting that it's not ULEZ compliant? So (generally speaking) pre-2005 for petrol and pre-2015 for diesel. And there's no way you can find the money to get something newer than that which complies?

 

[Chz]

You're seriously considering buying a car that is so polluting that it's not ULEZ compliant? So (generally speaking) pre-2005 for petrol and pre-2015 for diesel. And there's no way you can find the money to get something newer than that which complies?

I read it as they have a car that's very fuel/CO2 efficient, but spews a host of other nasties out the tailpipe and resents having to pay good money for something that's cleaner, but considerably worse on fuel/CO2. Which is fair enough, but that's the way it is.

Our new(ish) car actually gets much the same mileage as the old one, despite being quite a bit larger. Technology's been great for that. Personally, I would never own a diesel but I can appreciate how anyone who does over 20k a year would consider them (and you're mental to buy one if you do less, frankly).

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Perhaps, even so, why be happy to spew so many nasties, it's not like the harm they do stops at the boundary of the ULEZ..?

 

[Elpenor]

I don’t understand why buying a new car (£30k?) that is less fuel efficient is seen as a better decision than occasionally paying £10 / day to drive in an urban area, given emissions doesn’t seem to be a particular concern.

 

[edcraw]

.

 

[edcraw]

I don’t understand why buying a new car (£30k?) that is less fuel efficient is seen as a better decision than occasionally paying £10 / day to drive in an urban area, given emissions doesn’t seem to be a particular concern.

 

[dessiato]

I don’t understand why buying a new car (£30k?) that is less fuel efficient is seen as a better decision than occasionally paying £10 / day to drive in an urban area, given emissions doesn’t seem to be a particular concern.

Edinburgh ULEZ, from their site, for driving a non-compliant car within the zone:

"The initial penalty is £60, but the fine can double with each subsequent breach within 90 days, up to a maximum of £480 for cars and light goods vehicles, and £960 for buses and HGVs."

eta, further checking shows I cannot drive this car in any ULEZ zone in Scotland.

 

[Elpenor]

Edinburgh ULEZ, from their site, for driving a non-compliant car within the zone:

The initial penalty is £60, but the fine can double with each subsequent breach within 90 days, up to a maximum of £480 for cars and light goods vehicles, and £960 for buses and HGVs.

Ah that’s different, I thought Ulez was more like a daily fee like the London congestion charge. My mistake

 

[Ax^]

London is a daily fee of 12.50

it the edges that are pain for it really lot of Heathrow works and the surround only needs to venture in to get to work 12.50 is a steep charge for one road to work

 

[teuchter]

Interesting that Scotland's cities have been brave enough to go for a proper ban while London hasn't.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Not sure what you mean by that tbh. We need reports to show people these measures are effective as so many try and oppose - hopefully reports like this will help strengthen the arguments for cities like Manchester & New York that have chickened out of similar measures.

Meanwhile here’s what ULEZ opponents are up to these days…

I'm amazed those workers didn't punch that ignorant twat ranting at them.

 

[Chz]

Interesting that Scotland's cities have been brave enough to go for a proper ban while London hasn't.

I think the one thing that the protesters latched onto that was absolutely true is how it's just a tax, rather than an actual ban. Would have preferred them to go the extra yard, but they'd need to have the scrappage scheme match it then.

 

[geminisnake]

can someone please explain why my car only costs £30 road tax a year cos it's 'green' but isn't green enough to go into an Ulez, but my neighbours car costs him £400+ a year to road tax but he can go into the damn zones! It doesn't make sense to me. When these zones were first proposed in Scotland my car was ok, then they moved the goalposts

 

[Chz]

can someone please explain why my car only costs £30 road tax a year cos it's 'green' but isn't green enough to go into an Ulez, but my neighbours car costs him £400+ a year to road tax but he can go into the damn zones! It doesn't make sense to me. When these zones were first proposed in Scotland my car was ok, then they moved the goalposts

Easy. VED is based 100% on fuel usage (which they extrapolate into CO2, but it's a 1:1 relation). ULEZ is based on everything other than CO2 that comes out of the tailpipe. At the extreme end, you could have a 1985 Peugeot 205 that gets 60mpg and pays precious little VED, but emits whole orders of magnitude more NOX and particulates than a recent petrol powered V6 that costs £180/yr in VED.

ETA: Diesel is dirty. Less so with the Euro6 than in the past, but still filthy compared to petrol which got its NOX and whatnot under control in the 80s/90s. But it gets great mileage, and that's all VED cares about.

 

[edcraw]

I think the one thing that the protesters latched onto that was absolutely true is how it's just a tax, rather than an actual ban. Would have preferred them to go the extra yard, but they'd need to have the scrappage scheme match it then.

Yeah - everyone, especially the conspiracy nutters, would have been absolutely fine with completely banning people with certain cars from entering or driving around Greater London.

 

[Winot]

Great news - school children switching to walking and cycling as a result of ULEZ introduction:

London's ULEZ has cut children's school car rides, study suggests

Research shows children living in the zone are now nearly four times more likely to be walking or cycling.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Hollis]

Per mile charging makes total sense. You can then also set the rate based on the vehicle weight, emissions and overall size as well as the specific road and time of day. Make central London in a Range Rover cost £10/mile...

This is completely what should be happening now - would be far more effective than LTNs in creating behaviour change and reducing car usage. People might even get to like it because they have far more control over when they're charged and what for.

Year 1 into a 5 year govt - should be the sort of thing they implement now.